A court ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court has now cleared a path for Oklahoma basketball to finally construct a new arena.
The court ruled in favor of the university and the city of Norman on Tuesday afternoon after legal frustrations over the past several years kept blocking the process. The venerable Lloyd Noble Center opened in 1975, over 50 years ago now, and while it’s been a host for several memorable moments in Sooners basketball history, the program has been trying to progress into a new arena it can call home.
It appears that is finally on the way to happening. The university and the city of Norman had announced in 2024 that they intended to build a $1.2 billion entertainment district in Rock Creek that would be highlighted by a brand new arena costing nearly $330 million. But those grand plans were continually delayed by those aforementioned legal wars.
While the Lloyd Noble Center is on campus, the new arena would be off campus but still in Norman.
Oklahoma put out a statement on Tuesday that read in part: “Today marks a defining milestone for the City of Norman, the University of Oklahoma and our entire community.”
Here is the full statement by the university:
The new arena was originally supposed to be completed in time for the 2027-28 season, but because of those legal battles that timeline could be delayed.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
